Cisco ChengHP Pavilion dv2000zThe performance aspect is nothing to write home about, but the dv2000z is one of the few notebooks to ship with both a dual-core AMD processor and a little bit of Zen in the design.

The performance aspect is nothing to write home about, but the dv2000z is one of the few notebooks to ship with both a dual-core AMD processor and a little bit of Zen in the design.

after two years of sticking with one look, hp has revamped its best-selling "dv" series notebooks with a new design and core components. the hp pavilion dv2000z ($1,354.99 direct, as tested) is a thin and light laptop that draws its inspiration from the artwork of japanese zen rock gardens. it sports a shinier finish and unique patterns that don't overwhelm the entire look. under the hood, hp continues to back amd's latest turion x2 processors, which might save you some money down the road, but which haven't been quite adept at catching up to the speedier intel core duo solutions.

the look and feel of the dv2000z is a complete departure from that of its predecessor, the long-in-the-tooth pavilion dv1000. edges are rounder on the dv2000z's chassis, while the exterior draws you near with the piano-like finish. the system weighs 5.3 pounds and measures 13.1 by 9.4 by 1.2 inches (hwd), so it's small enough for extensive commuting. the shiny black is prone to fingerprints and smudges, like the apple macbook 13-inch black edition. a closer look at the dv2000z's case reveals wavy patterns resembling a huge fingerprint. the same patterns can also be found along the palm rests as soon as you flip open the gorgeous 14.1-inch screen.

the exterior feels like polycarbonate plastic and does a good job of shielding the heat during long hours of lap work. (if a notebook doesn't do a good job of cooling the components, you'll feel it in the base first, and then it'll radiate up to the keyboard.) as with the dv1000, the keyboard is comfortable for typing and doesn't get hot. the mouse buttons are silent when clicking, and i have no complaints about the touchpad's responsiveness. the button to disable the touchpadlocated right above the touchpadis hard to spot, but touch typists who would otherwise bump into the pad appreciate it.

the multimedia keys are backlit in a sea of blue lights, with one difference from the dv1000: they are now touch-sensitive, and you get a response by simply making skin contact with the buttons. the keys are thin and narrow enough, though, to ensure that you won't make contact accidentally. you get dvd and music keys that activate quickplay 2.1. for those who would rather not boot into microsoft windows, quickplay 2.1 offers a 15-second alternative for accessing dvd movies and music files from your hard drive with a tap of a button. in addition, you get you dvd playback controls and a touch-sensitive volume slider.

the rest of the features are similar to those of the dv1000. you get three usb ports along the sides, as well as a firewire port and s-video and vga out. you also get an integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam that's perfect for video chatting online. the front panel has two headphone ports, which makes it easy to share music with a friend. a 5-in-1 card reader (ms, ms pro, sd, mmc, xd) and expresscard slot are also present. the 100gb hard drive is perfect for this size of laptop, and you get hp's patented lightscribe dual-layer dvd burner. (lightscribe is an etching technology that replaces pesky, sticky disc labels.)

the "z" in the dv2000z signifies amd components. in this case, i had the luxury of testing a machine with amd's latest processor, the 1.6-ghz turion 64 x2 tl-52. it's the same one found on the hp compaq nx6325. the dv2000z even comes with a whopping 2gb of system memory, which doubles the 1gb installed on the nx6325. thanks to this extra memory, the dv2000z scored better on adobe photoshop cs2 tests than the nx6325 did, but the difference between the two machines' overall sysmark 2004 se scores was negligible.

when the turion x2s-equipped laptops were compared with intel core duo solutions such as the dell inspiron e1505 or the acer travelmate 4202wlmi, the two intel machines scored 8 to 13 percent better, respectively, on sysmark. hp does offer intel core duo options under the pavilion dv2000t, if performance matters that much. the nvidia geforce go 6150 graphics card performs similarly to integrated graphics, in that it borrows at least 64mb from system memory. even less impressive is the 2 hours 28 minutes of battery life the dv2000z got on mobilemark 2005 using the six-cell battery. thankfully, you can upgrade to a 12-cell solution ($39), which should get you 4.5 hours (and an extra 0.6 pounds).

the hp pavilion dv2000z is capable of running all your fancy applications, albeit at a slower pace than the competition. i laud the piano finish and zen-like imprints, but the new look is offset by subpar battery life and lower-than-expected performance.

Cisco Cheng is the Lead Analyst of the laptop team at PCMag.com. He’s a one-man wrecking crew who tests and writes about anything considered a laptop (yes, even netbooks). He’s been with PC Mag for over 10 years and gets occasional headaches from all the technical knowledge he has absorbed during that time. He’d still be snowboarding and playing basketball had he not been through multiple knee surgeries (well, two). Now he spends his time with Google Reader, the iPhone 3G, and his now 3-year...
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